Architecture considered to be the oldest of all arts always stood the most important and pragmatic role of them all. One of architecture’s duties is to stand as a platform for exhibiting other art mediums. In “Enclosed Space” artists reverse its role. In the neutral space of white cube artists explore its fundamental elements and tasks by creating their own vision of them. Some exhibited artworks modify elements hidden in the building’s flesh, other works present ready-made building elements that change their meaning and give a new perspective in the white-cube space. Part of the exhibition is created by new forms that by material and form connect themselves to architecture, but by their composition and malfunctioning form present rather its opposition. Some of the presented artworks get the inspiration from architecture’s repetitiveness and reproducibility by using its elements as geometrical decorative patterns which could be placed close to Bauhaus aesthetics.
Presented forms include sound installation, sculpture, 3D architectural models, digital painting space intervention, ready-made, photographs and site specific temporal architecture sculpture that question defined ways of architecture.
Vernissage: 1st August, 6pm
Closing: 26th August
BcmA
Manteuffelstr. 42, 10997, Berlin
Opening hours:
Thursdays & Fridays: 5pm – 8pm
Saturday: by appointment
Exhibited artists:
Terra” can be viewed as an abstract object inspired by nature’s flow. It’s made out of four glass elements that create an open and airy shape. An object that is heavy in material and light in form simultaneously transports the viewer to recognise organic shapes like flowers, exotic fruits but also topography features. The yellow parts of “Terra’’ simulate the natural ripple effect of waves found on beach shores or on desert dunes.
@jessicabuhlmann art piece’s name “Terra” comes from the Latin word “Earth” and is inspired by essential and hypnotising organic shapes of our planet.
“Terra” composes four seperate coloured glass pieces partly connected with felt stripe. Abstract form created by composing four glass elements gives the viewer a feeling of a natural form. This feeling is created by contours’ subtle flow enforced by grey tidal lines on the yellow parts that remind natural patterns like overlapping waves of water or a desert’s sand. This abstract form generates a feeling of something delicate and airy that comes from the material itself as well as from openwork composition.
Patchy nature of Earth is also present in the sculpture’s combination of different materials. Glossy and easy to crumble parts of glass were connected with flexible and soft felt stripe. This combination mixes characteristics of organic and inorganic objects. These opposing attributes can also be found in juxtaposition of gentle flow of inner lines with sharp edges of external lines that creates the sculpture’s dynamism.
“Poised between composition and improvisation, an aesthetic ecosystem of subtle relationships, dramatic balances, and constant surprise comprises the work of Jessica Buhlmann.
More than mere representation of nature, Buhlmann’s 3D installation work, a continuation of her 2D drawings and paintings, replicates the processes of natural systems in the studio. Nature is her co-conspirator: the artist collaborates with randomness, accidents, contingencies on multiple levels, guided by an intuitive yet deeply considered sensitivity.[…]”
~ He Zhao, “Comprovisation”, October 2020
Artwork from @nanett_dietz presents an ambiguous human’s perception of time. Her assemblage is created by three groups of items. A painting showing an alp landscape with a traditional home and one of the most famous mountains in the world – Matterhorn. Next to it, three porcelain figurines and a candlestick combined with two fluorescent yellow tinted boxes. This composition of elements originates from two different aesthetics – one that is already antiquated and one that is from more modern times. This collation creates many questions about their owners, time of creation, their purpose and place of origin. Juxtaposition and infiltration of such quaint items as neon-green plastic with porcelain and canvas leads us to wonder about the concept of space and time. Together they create a new meaning for the viewer which the artist doesn’t impose. Thanks to Einstein we know about the relativity of Space-Time, Dietz actually implements this theory to her artwork and leaves it actually open to interpretation and to create new individual narratives.
Minimalism of this photograph guides us to seek its full meaning in what is hidden. Inside of the box there is something that the fibreboard is actually restricting from the view. Due to this, many questions arise. Is it being restored? Is it waiting for its opening/first presentation? Maybe it is a modern art installation and there is nothing inside? The answer to this question is actually of a different matter. The photograph was taken in London during 2001’s anti-war demonstration. Inside of the box there is one of many memorials from the British Empire which the boxes actually have to cover from potential vandalism.
Interesting form of the box was captured by Chris in a way that it resembles minimal photographs that emerged during the 1960s. These presented blank billboards on the background of the cityscape that created this feeling of abstract element in reality. Here the three coloured patches created of darker and lighter wood over grey postument make a pyramidal composition resembling architecture of Mark Rothko’s paintings. Abstract composition underlines the element of neutrality that was taken under question mark by the anti-war demonstrations that could harass the idea of old colonial power embodied in the hidden statue.
“Model for concrete sculpture” (Functional buildings series)
Robin Mehrkisch often adopts forms and objects that originate from construction elements and architectural models. Presented object by its shape keeps relation with buildings’ functional installation. By removing the shape from its architectural context the author created an abstract form that refers to minimalist geometric abstraction.
Sculpture that took part of our exhibition “Enclosed Space” refers to architecture not only by its simple geometric form. The choice of raw chipboard as the material for the sculpture connects it actually to brutalistic concrete architecture. It does so by the material’s attributes that are its grey tone lacking artist’s modification as well as flat shape with visible porosity directly referring to formwork.
“Diagonalmatrix”
Architectural design art can be a splendid combination to contrast, complement, and re-create concepts of space. Katja Pudor’s “Diagonalmatrix” does it by interfering exhibiting space through changing its tension with two ropes buckled together with a piton. These are attached to the walls of BcmA in four various points close to the corners which lead to change the gravity centre of our space. This action creates an ability to open new perspectives of experiencing “Enclosed Space”.
The title of Katja’s site-specific “Diagonalmatrix” comes from the mathematics’s dictionary. If we were to understand the literal meaning of her installation, we could find a resemblance of the diagonal matrix in its shape as it creates two triangles/angles and an empty space between the ropes. Following this line of interpretation we would need to ask if the artist wants us to implement in place of numbers the exhibited artworks, by what they would create an equation. It is up to our visitor’s interpretation if one would find a solution to this task. Implied mathematical perspective makes us actually choose from only three, but all-inclusive possibilities: finite or infinite sets which would create an answer to the curator’s choice, or maybe actually a contradictory set, leaving the visitors with insufficiency and presumably with need of answer.
“Column”
There are two most interesting moments in a building’s lifespan for @richter_kai : the birth of it – when it is constructed and its slow death – when it awaits self demolition.
One of two spatial-intervention compositions currently presented in BcmA is big format sculpture “Column” made by Kai Richter. Taking part of “Enclosed Space” this installation questions primal issues of architecture like durability, use of noble materials and harmony by modifying real building elements.